Month: March 2008

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What Would You Do If I Sang Out Of Tune . . .

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UPDATE – The Wonder Years is coming to DVD for the first time ever in October!  The 26-disc boxed set includes all six seasons of the show, plus a cast reunion segment, over 15 hours of bonus footage, a collectible metal locker, two production booklets packed with behind-the-scenes information, a replica yearbook, and Wonder Years magnets.  Sets can be pre-ordered here.

While I was growing up, my mom was completely obsessed with Kevin Arnold and the TV show The Wonder Years. I remember sitting down together as a family to watch the show every week and lamenting over the trials and tribulations of Winnie Cooper and Kevin Arnold’s teen romance. So when I found the address of the Arnold family home in my favorite stalking book, I just had to stalk it this weekend while I was in the area.

I was shocked by the fact that Kevin’s house looks EXACTLY as it did back in the 80s during the filming of The Wonder Years. Nothing has changed – not even the paint color! I think it’s awesome that the owners of the home have chosen to leave it as it was in The Wonder Years days for all of us stalkers to appreciate. 🙂

You can watch the intro to The Wonder Years where the house is shown several times here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Kevin Arnold’s house is located in Burbank at 516 University Avenue. Downtown Burbank is just a few blocks away on San Fernando Road. It’s a really cute area to walk around in and grab some iced lattes on a nice day! 🙂

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Studio City Stalking

dscn0379.jpg This past Saturday must have been my lucky day! While my boyfriend and I were doing a little Studio City stalking, we happened to see Roselyn Sanchez, who plays Elena Delgado on Without A Trace, getting out of her car in front of a newsstand on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. I made my boyfriend swerve through traffic to pull over and park the car and I promptly ran to the newsstand, where I pretended to look at magazines. When Roselyn walked by me to head to the cash register, I told her I loved her show and asked if I could take a picture with her. She could not have been nicer!! She posed for a picture and then chatted a bit with the cashier. When she left, she even turned back to say goodbye to me! She is a lot taller than most Hollywood types – I’d say about 5’6″ – and she was absolutely stunning! She wasn’t wearing a stitch of makeup and she was still absolutely beautiful! Without a Trace is one of my favorite shows, so I could not have been more excited! I guess seeing her was my good karma after not getting to see any of the stars when I stalked the Without a Trace set last week. 🙂

dscn0381.jpg After meeting Roselyn, we headed across the street to Pick Up Stix to grab some food. The Pick Up Stix location in Studio City is a celeb favorite due to its close proximity to CBS Studio Center just a few blocks away and headshots of famous customers adorn the walls. I visited this Pick Up Stix one day about five years ago and I jokingly asked if they would put one of my headshots on the wall and they said yes, even though I am not famous yet! 🙂 Until yesterday, I had not returned to the restaurant since that day back in 2003, and as we entered the front door my boyfriend jokingly said “I wonder if they ever put your picture on the wall.” Lo and behold there it was, big as life among the likes of Tom Arnold and Jeff Probst! I was in absolute shock!! While there used to be quite a few pictures on the wall, today there are only 6 – and mine is one of them! THANKS Pick Up Stix, you guys made my week!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

dscn0384.jpg Stalk It: You can stalk my headshot at the Studio City Pick Up Stix, which is located at 3960 Laurel Canyon Blvd. The newsstand where I met Roselyn Sanchez is located just across the street, at the corner of Laurel Canyon and Ventura Boulevards.

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Warner Brothers Ranch, Here I Come!

dscn0365.jpg I am literally pinching myself right now because tonight I got to go on a private tour of the Warner Brothers Ranch Lot in Burbank. The Ranch is normally closed to the public, but my friend works on the lot and agreed to take me on my very own private stalking tour. I was in heaven! Even though I have been on the lot once before for an acting class, at the time I had no idea what exterior sets were located on the lot and I didn’t really take advantage of being there. The only thing I stalked on that day was the Friends fountain. Today, we parked right in front of the fountain and it was actually turned on!! I was literally ready to jump in and start dancing, but my friend got a little worried that he might get fired over something like that. 🙂

Advisory 🙂 – cameras are taboo at the Ranch and we had to take pictures on the down low while we were walking around, so the pictures aren’t the greatest.

dscn0353.jpg Before the tour, my friend told me that would try to find his map of the Ranch which listed all of the productions filmed on the lot and which exterior sets they used for filming. I told him that Lindsay needed no map, and that most likely I could show him a thing or two that wasn’t on that map! 🙂 Our first stop was the Life Goes On house – which I was SO excited to see. I grew up watching Life Goes On and wanted nothing more than to be Tyler Benchfield’s girlfriend! LOL I absolutely could not WAIT to see the Thatcher family house.

dscn0352.jpg I was shocked that the house looked almost exactly as it did back in the Life Goes On days. Sometimes the Ranch changes the facades of the set homes, making them almost unrecognizable. But that was not the case with this house – I recognized it immediately. This house was also featured as Gladys and Abner Kravitz’ home on Bewitched.

dscn0360.jpg The next house I was DYING to see was Clark W. Griswold’s home from one of my all time favorite movies National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Even though the facade of this house has changed considerably since filming, I could still picture Clark in the front yard yelling expletives at his plastic Santa Claus and eight tiny reindeer when his Christmas lights refused to turn on. What I wouldn’t give to have been able to see this house all lit up with Clark’s Christmas lights during the filming of Christmas Vacation!! 🙁

dscn0359.jpg Next door to the Griswold’s house is Danny Glover’s house from the Leathal Weapon movies – and no, it was not blown up during the filming of Leathal Weapon 4. A replica house was built and blown up for the filming of the movie, and Roger Murtaugh’s house is still standing strong on the Ranch. This house was also used in American Beauty and as Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ house in Christmas Vacation. “Why is the carpet all wet, Todd?” “I don’t know, Margo!” The exterior of this house has also changed considerably since being used in both Lethal Weapon and Christmas Vacation.

dscn0354.jpg The Bewitched house is also located on the Ranch. I was surprised that virtually none of its exterior has been changed since the Bewitched days. It looks exactly as it did back when Samantha and Darren lived there. It was surreal how much it looked like the Santa Monica home that the studio set was modeled after.

dscn0362.jpg Lastly we hit up the Pushing Daisies house. This house was also used in the movies Small Soldiers and Pleasantville. The facade of this home was vastly changed for each production it has “starred” in. For a more in-depth view of the lot, check out Adam R. Jones’ website, entitled “1164”.

Stalk It: The Warner Brothers Ranch Lot is located at 411 N. Hollywood Way in Burbank. While it does not offer tours at this time, you can take the “VIP Studio Tour” at Warner Brothers Studio, which is just down the road at 3400 W. Riverside Drive. I’ve heard the VIP tours are excellent and tickets can be purchased for $45 per person.

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Sandy and Kirsten’s Berkeley House from “The O.C.”

dscn0350.jpg Thought I’d do a post tonight on another Craftsman style house – one that was featured on the series finale of The O.C. On the last show of the series, after the Cohen home is destroyed in an earthquake, Seth and Ryan hatch a scheme to buy their parents back the Berkeley house they spent the early years of their marriage in. The Berkeley house cannot really be found in Berkeley, though – it is actually located in South Pasadena, just a few blocks from the 13 Going On 30 houses.

I found this location thanks to my fave OC Stalking Guide and ran right out to stalk it this weekend. The house is very pretty in person, and is a great example of Craftsman style architecture. Although the house was only featured in one episode of The O.C., it played a pretty significant role and was shown many times throughout the finale. If you walk south past the house, you can even see partially into the backyard where Summer and Seth got married. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! : )

Stalk It: The “Berkeley House” is located at 1617 Marengo Avenue in South Pasadena. It is just a few blocks south of the Fair Oaks exit off the 110 Freeway. After stalking be sure to stop into Fair Oaks Pharmacy at nearby 1526 Mission Street for a homemade cherry coke. They make the best! Fair Oaks Pharmacy played the role of the soda fountain in Winona Ryder’s hometown in the movie Mr. Deeds.

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The Numb3rs House

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Ever since the pilot episode of the TV show Numb3rs aired back in 2005, I was totally obsessed with finding the location of Charlie’s large Craftsman style house. American Craftsman Style architecture became popular towards the end of the 19th Century and usually combines huge front porches, handcrafted woodwork and clean lines. Craftsman houses are a favorite of movie producers and location scouts and you will often see them popping up in your favorite TV shows and movies. Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, The O.C., and You, Me and Dupree have all used Craftsman style homes as residences for some of their characters. Ever since moving to LA, I have been a huge fan of Craftsman style homes. So, of course, Charlie’s house was at the top of my stalking list!

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At first I was convinced the house was located in Pasadena, as Pasadena is famous for its historic Craftsman homes and Charlie’s house resembled another famous Craftsman located in Pasadena – the Gamble house which was featured as Doc Brown’s home in the movie Back to the Future. But, try as I might, I could not find the Numb3rs house anywhere in Pasadena.

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Then, one day, while cyber-stalking, I stumbled across Zillow’s Famous TV Homes website – and the Numb3rs house was featured as the second link on the page. I immediately grabbed my camera and dragged my boyfriend to go stalk it. I was not disappointed when I saw the house in person – it is absolutely beautiful and looks almost exactly like it does on TV. I would not be at all surprised to see the house show up again in future TV and movie productions.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

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Stalk It: The Numb3rs house is located at 2515 4th Avenue in the historic West Adams District of Los Angeles. I highly recommend driving around West Adams after stalking the Numb3rs house as the area is home to one of the largest and most beautiful collections of historic homes on the West Coast. You can read more about West Adams here.

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Il Sole – Jen’s Favorite Restaurant

dscn0329-1.jpg Those of you who are even half as obsessed with Ms. Aniston as I am, have most likely heard of her favorite restaurant, Il Sole. Jen is a regular at the tiny boutique Italian restaurant and has even sat down for a few magazine interviews there. But Jen is not the only one obsessing on the place – it seems everyone who’s anyone has been spotted there. Paparazzi have caught Jessica Simpson, Nicole Richie, Brody Jenner, Lauren Conrad, Britney Spears, Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and countless others at the little restaurant. TMZ even went so far as to call Il Sole the “new crack” in a recent article. I’ve never eaten at Il Sole myself – I am more of a chicken strips and ranch dressing kind of girl 🙂 – but I hear it is delicious!!

dscn0331.jpg My boyfriend and I were on our way to ONE Sunset, another celeb hot spot, on Friday night when we spotted Valerie Bertinelli dining with a balding mystery man at Il Sole. 🙂 ONE Sunset is the sister restaurant to New York celeb hang out ONE Manhattan and is a major celeb draw. It’s not very hard to see why – the place is incredible! I had never been there before Friday night, but let me tell you – I am for sure going back! ONE is absolutely gorgeous, with flowing silk curtains, huge vases filled with submersed pink flowers, and tabletops covered in candles. And the staff could not have been friendlier!! ONE has a very laid back vibe, even though it is located on the Sunset Strip, which is part of its charm. I absolutely loved it! Jennifer Aniston even hosted a party there last June to honor her good friend Laura Day’s new book release – so you know it has to be a cool place! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂 And enjoy the Hills mini-season premiere tonight! YAY!

Stalk It: Il Sole is located at the Sunset Plaza at 8730 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. ONE Sunset is located directly across the street from Il Sole, at 8751 Sunset Boulevard. You will often catch paparazzi hanging outside of Il Sole and ONE Sunset on Friday and Saturday nights waiting for the celebs to show up. Sunset Plaza is a definite celeb hot spot and you are virtually guaranteed a star sighting in its small two block radius.

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Ah, How the Mighty Have Fallen!

This weekend for my boyfriend’s birthday I took him on a surprise little weekend getaway to Newport Beach. He was especially excited because I wasn’t aware of any filming locations in Newport and hadn’t planned any stalking for the weekend. But fate stepped in! While in our hotel room, I happened to open up a tourist book about Orange County which had a section on – you guessed it! – filming locations! And there was one location I wasn’t leaving Newport without stalking!

dscn0345.jpg While The O.C. supposedly takes place in Newport Beach, none of the show was ever actually filmed anywhere near Orange County. (You can view detailed information on every single O.C. filming location on my fave stalking site Seeing Stars.) But apparently fans of the show come to Newport in droves hoping to spot some of their favorite locales from the show. Thanks to the vast increase in tourism due directly to the show, on October 28, 2004 the mayor of Newport gave several of the cast members keys to the city and proclaimed the day “O.C. Thursday.” The cast members also had their hands immortalized in blocks of cement, for what was to be the beginning of Newport Beach’s very own Walk of Fame.

For some reason, the Walk of Fame idea never took off and the cement blocks sat in the lobby of the Newport Beach Conference Center and Visitors’ Bureau for a few years, but were eventually relocated. In an ironic twist, the handprints of the actors who depicted Newport’s most elite residents can now be found at the local Newport RV park. Yes, you read that right. After visiting the Newport Conference Center today and having no luck spotting the handprints, my boyfriend found this article which lead us to the Newport Dunes RV Resort.

dscn0343.jpg The cement blocks are hanging on a display on a wall in the main office of the RV park. When we arrived the display was actually hidden behind a large sign with a map of the park. The front desk clerk let me move the sign out of the way to take pictures. I asked him how in the heck the handprints had wound up in the rarely trafficked office of an RV park and he replied, “No one else wanted them, so we took them.” lol I can’t believe no one would want the handprints!! Heck, I would have taken them and put them in my room had I known they were up for grabs! 🙂 The front desk clerk did tell us that hundreds of people come by to see the handprints each month, though. I think Newport really missed the ball on this one – how cool would it have been to have a Walk of Fame right on the beach for all of us fans to visit? This is actually one location I wouldn’t really recommend making a special trip to stalk – unfortunately, there just isn’t that much to see. 🙁 I was super excited to be there, though, nonetheless – especially since I got to put my hands in Ben McKenzie’s handprints. I love me some Ben McKenzie! 🙂

Happy Easter and until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

dscn0346.jpg Stalk It: The O.C. handprints are located in the main office of the Newport Dunes RV Resort and Marina, which is located at 1311 Back Bay Drive in Newport Beach, just off Jamboree Road. I suggest parking on Back Bay Drive and walking into the RV park – otherwise you’ll have to pay to enter the area with your car.

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You’re Going to Hollywood, Dog!

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Got a challenge from Hilary last week to find the apartment building that the Top 12 American Idols just moved into. This challenge was actually a slam dunk as a good friend of mine used to live in the Idols building. So I just called him up and got the address (Thanks, DH!) The Idols live in The Marlowe apartment building in Los Angeles, and let me tell you – they are some nice digs! If I could carry a tune, I might audition for the show just for a chance to live there!

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The Marlowe is a humongous upscale apartment complex, complete with outdoor pool, patio areas, fitness center, concierge service, gardens, and community barbecues. It is practically a resort! The front of the building is currently under renovation, but if it ends up looking anything like the back of the building, it’s going to be gorgeous! The Marlowe is located in a great neighborhood, right next to the Wilshire Country Club and just a few blocks from Larchmont Village, an adorable little shopping district which also happens to be the filming location of MacGuyver’s loft, but I’ll save that for a future post! 🙂

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The past three seasons of Idol contestants have all lived at the Marlowe, along with the So You Think You Can Dance kids. My friend lived in the Marlowe for about a year and a half and witnessed the comings and goings of two seasons worth of Idol and SYTYCD contestants. He used to call and taunt me everytime he saw Heidi, who I absolutely LOVED, from Season 2 of SYTYCD. Maybe it’s time I take my stalking to the next level and just move into the Marlowe, so I can stalk 24/7! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

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Stalk It: The Idol apartment building is located at 445 N. Rossmore in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. You can see even more pictures here. If you want to get an even closer view of where the Idols live, you can visit the leasing office and request a tour. I tried to take a tour, but by the time I got to the Marlowe last night, the “Leasing Lounge” was closed. Such a bummer! 🙁 After stalking the Idols, head to nearby Larchmont Village for an afternoon coffee and some shopping. Larchmont Village is located on Larchmont Boulevard between Beverly Boulevard and 3rd Street.

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WAT

dscn0317.jpg Got a call from a family friend’s daughter last night who told me that she was called into the Principal’s office yesterday and told that not only was the TV show Without a Trace being filmed at her high school the next day, but that they would actually be filming her very locker in the scene! She is going to have a famous locker!! So this morning I got up bright and early to cruise by La Salle High School in Pasadena to do a little stalking before work.

dscn0313.jpg The production location was easy to locate from the large yellow “WAT” signs posted all over North-Eastern Pasadena this morning. When TV and movie productions film on location, bright yellow signs attached to light-posts and tree trunks are used to point cast and crew members in the direction of the filming area. These signs are painted with large black abbreviations identifying the production’s title. Seeing these yellow signs posted on various lampposts is a common occurrence when you live in Los Angeles – and a great tool for any stalker. Whenever I see these signs, I pull over and do a little stalking! Film crews are generally super friendly and will not only answer any questions about the production you may have, but most will let you hang out and watch the filming. While I didn’t spot any Without a Trace stars this morning, being there reminded me of a film set I stalked a few years back.

angelina_001.jpg Way back in 2000, when I first moved to LA, my mom and I happened to drive by the movie The Man Who Wasn’t There being filmed in Pasadena. I, of course, made my mom stop the car and we got out to do some stalking. The movie starred Billy Bob Thornton, who at the time was married to Angelina Jolie. Billy Bob, Angelina, and her father Jon Voight were hanging out between takes when we arrived. Angelina was fresh off her Oscar win for Girl Interrupted and, being an actress, I just had to introduce myself to her. This was long before the little home-wrecker set her sights on Brad Pitt forcing me to forever boycott Team Jolie. I must say, though, that I was completely smitten with Angelina – she could not have been more kind or friendly! I spent about ten minutes talking to her about acting and her Oscar win and she seemed genuinely interested in talking with me. Too bad she had to go and ruin it all by messing with my girl Jen! 🙂

So, next time you happen to be driving in LA and you see a yellow sign with black letters, pull over and do some stalking! You never know who you might get to meet!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: La Salle High School is located at 3880 East Sierra Madre Blvd. in Pasadena. Look for the Without a Trace episode to air in about 6 weeks. The Crane house from The Man Who Wasn’t There is located at 850 N. Chester Avenue, in the Bungalow Heaven Landmark District of Pasadena – a small area of Pasadena chock full of beautiful, historic Craftsman style homes.